The Stakes of Our Lives
by animecool100
Summary: Everyone knows that Karin doesn't put up with failure so when she's challenged to win Sasuke, she'll try almost anything to win. But maybe she'll learn that she doesn't want Sasuke but maybe something different?


The Stakes of our Lives

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Disclaimer: I own nothing

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The bet that started it all

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Suigetsu grinned across the lunch table over at the red haired woman that was sighing over a picture. He watched as she sighed and started to trace the picture as if stroking a lost lover. "Can you cut out your intolerable moping for five second?"

Karin snapped her head up to sneer at the white haired man across from her. He was grinning that grin that never failed to ignore her, with the shark like teeth of his that pointed in and out in front of his lips. "Shut up shark boy, you wouldn't understand the power of love!"

He watched as she once again bent down over the picture and smiled at it with an awe struck expression. Snorting in disgust Suigetsu picked up his lunch tray and carried it off to the trash. He had an hour class of Literature before all his classes came to an end for the day and he was free to rest in his dorm. Sighing he made his way out of the canteen and down the hall.

By the time he got to the classroom he was exactly four minutes early. He quickly sat down in his assigned seat and waited for the class to fill in. He had only taken literature at first so that he could be in the same class as his best friend, Jugo. But after a few classes he found it interesting how looking deeper into the context would shed light on an even deeper meaning of the over all book. He watched as the short stout woman came wobbling into the room talking about the latest book that was to be read.

After a few minutes of vainly trying to grab a hold of what the teacher was saying, he gave up. He couldn't think right now. He found it sick the way Karin pinned after the same man for year upon year. She barley took in anything but Sasuke. And it was becoming more and more annoying each time she took out that stupid picture.

He could barley stand Karin as she was without her strange obsession. Why he kept her around as one of his best friends was beyond him. And he had taken all he could from her. If it had been anyone else he would have taken them out of her circle. But it was Karin his favorite person to argue with and his own personal toy that he could mess with as much as possible.

But lately her love for the man had become more than he could even take. She never went anywhere without the picture. She would talk to it like he was really here. She would say things like "I don't know Sasuke waiting for me" or "I love you too Sasuke." And now he was through with it.

He was going to think of something because not only was the obsession smart for her it was messing with his head and his favorite class. And he was going to deal with it once and for all.

But how was the question. He couldn't very well burn the picture, not only would he be beaten inches before his death, but she probably had thousands more somewhere hidden in her own dorm room.

Suigetsu turned to look above the chalk board where the blue and white clock was ticking on. He now had only fifteen minutes of class and he hadn't been listening to a thing that had been taught. He turned a little to the left to see Jugo jotting notes as fast as the teacher spoke, so it was safe to say that he could always borrow the lecture from Jugo. So he was free from his grade slipping because of the fiery woman.

But he now had only thirteen minutes to come up with a plan. He refused to spend time with a woman that had no care for anything but Sasuke Uchiha a man that avoided her like the plague.

It didn't even cross Suigetsu's mind that he could always simply stop talk to Karin. Instead he sat there for the remainder of the class time thinking and rejecting plan after plan. He was almost obsessive himself about fixing his friend. He thought of finding another man for her but rejected it after considering the fortune he would loose to said man.

And then suddenly three minutes until the bell rang and the students in the college would start to swarm the hallways, did he come up with the answer that he needed. It came when the teacher said a phrase in class "The only thing left to do is to meet the problem face to face" He almost jumped out of his seat and hugged Ms. Portilio for his insight.

But instead he waited until the bell rang. When the chimes interrupted yet another lecture and snapped the student awake, Suigetsu jumped out of his seat, grabbed a hold of his books, and went running out of the door.

He didn't want to loose the idea so he had to share it before it raced away from him. So he ran until he was in front of the art room. He was happy to find that the art class had gone over the desired time and had not let loose its students. Now he had the opportunity to wait outside of the class until Karin came out in all her love struck glory. But soon it would come to an end.

At a flash of red Suigetsu jolted from the wall and took after his slim friend. Karin wait up, I have something I want to put pass you."

Karin sighed when she heard the voice of the man that she at time could not stand. She quickly turned around until she spotted the bobbing snow white haired head of her friend. She jutted her hip out and place her hand up, and gave him look that said that he better not be wasting her time. "What is it now Suigetsu, I already told you I refuse to be your dummy for karate practice."

"Nah, it has nothing to do with that." Suigetsu waved his hand back and forth in front of his face to fortify that it really meant nothing. He grinned down at her seeing as the top of her head only came to his chin, a fact that he knew pissed her off greatly. "I have something much more interesting to talk to you about. You have free period right now right?"

Karin raised an eyebrow but nodded her head. She allowed Suigetsu to lead her out until they were in front of a tree on campus. It reminded her of the mangas where she had seen love confessions take place. She hoped that that was not what was happening right now other wise he was really going to get it.

"Ok, well I've been thinking of your obsession on Sasuke Uchiha. And I've decided that it'll be a great way to get money."

"Excuse me; you don't believe that I can win over Sasuke? I'll have you know that I could get him if I wanted to!" Karin yelled pocking him in the chest, forcing him to back up.

Suigetsu paused in his explanation of his idea in shock. He didn't know how Karin had come up with that conclusion without even letting him explain himself. She was some kind of crazy bitch and he was about to tell her that when he paused in contemplation.

"WELL, IS IT OR IS IT NOT!" Karin screamed not caring if people were staring at them or not. She was pissed, he had no right to bring out all her insecurities and lay them out there bare for everyone to see. So what if the relationship had never really grown to anything, it was obviously because Sasuke was a gentleman even more so than Suigetsu could ever be.

So he had obviously hit a sore spot. So she wasn't firm in her belief in her everlasting soul mate crap, interesting. This just made it better and better, this was going to be so much easier than he had thought. "That's exactly what I mean! You couldn't even get Sasuke if you tried! Cause you sure as hell aren't trying right now."

Karin paused as she thought it over, and Suigetsu thought that she might cry at any moment. In fact he was really close to taking everything back and tugging her into his arms when she finally spoke up in a low and calm voice that made his spine shiver with a foreshadowing of doom. "Fine, Suigetsu I will win Sasuke over during the two weeks of break and I if I win you have to be my slave for two months."

"And if I win?"

"Then I'll be your slave for two months."

Suigetsu thought this deal over. Not only would he be able to get Karin over her sick obsession. But he would also get a slave out of this plan that he had come up with and that was more than he had thought he would get. "Then it's a deal." He said as he gripped Karin's hand and shook it, sealing the deal with a handshake.

"Good, I'm going to make you eat your words." Karin said as she stepped away turned on her heals, flipped her hair and started to strut back into the building.

"I'm sure you will." Suigetsu muttered letting his teeth poke out of his mouth in a smiling. This was going to be an interesting show. He was going to have to stay at a friend's house so that he could watch the progress of his experiment. He was positive that during the duration of this bet that Karin would get over her school girl crush and realize that she had never been in love in the first place. But for now he needed to start packing and to call his child hood friend Tenten.

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Karin huffed and puffed as she stalked down the crowded hallway. She couldn't believe to what she had just agreed to. Winning over Sasuke? The darkly handsome, quite boy that she had loved since he had saved her from a rabid dog. She had tried many things to get Sasuke to fall in love with her, and all had ended with disaster.

But now she had a reason to try harder. Her pride was on the line and there was no way she was going to be giving up any time soon. She would win Sasuke over, finally, and then she would make Suigetsu do the nastiest of things.

So during the upcoming break that would begin in three days, she would execute a fool proof plan, which would end with Sasuke wrapped around her slender little finger. He'll never know what hit him. She could always stay at the Uchiha manor. It would be easy, seeing as how her father was an important factor in the Uchiha business.

There was no way that she was going to loose this bet. Yes, she would make Suigetsu eat his words. She'd have to pack some good clothes and she'd have to come up with a game plan but overall everything was going to be perfect. Already the wheel of fate was spinning in her favor.

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"Neji what are you doing here?" Tenten asked when she opened the door to the full view, of a very pissed off Huuyga. His hair was down like usual, and his pupil less white eyes were staring at her with annoyance, if pupil less eyes could show any type of emotion.

"Tenten, did we not have a deal?" Neji countered as he swept into the house. He moved right past the woman who had not yet had time to put her hair into their respective buns. Obviously he had woken up the woman, seeing as how her appearance was not like it usually was. With her wearing green colored shorts and a gray top that hung all the way down to her knees.

"Umm yes?" She couldn't think of a reason why Neji would have shown up here. Much less at eleven in the morning, did he not know that normal people didn't wake up to at least one, during holidays? But, none the less Tenten shut the door and moved in the living room where Neji was busy making himself at home on her tan colored couch. "What was it again?"

Neji sighed in annoyance as he folded his hands onto his lap. "Tenten you haven't been to the sparing mat in over two days, guess who I've had to go with?"

Tenten shifted her eyes all over the room anywhere but the deep white depths of accusation. She looked over to the white shaded lamp and then over to the 13" TV until she zeroed down on the light blue carpet. "I don't know, maybe Lee?"

Neji leaned forward and slowly brought his hands together to make a booming sound. "You're observation skills astound me." He said his voice practically dripping in sarcasm.

Tenten winced at the sound and the tone as she brought her head up to regard Neji at a better view. He didn't seem very happy at all; in fact I'd say that he was beyond annoyed.

"Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but when you make a deal with a person you carry it out to the end yes?" Neji paused for effect but went on before she could actually answer the question. "Exactly. And do I have to remind you that you and I made a deal of sorts. I believe it was for my silence no?" Neji finished by waving his hands from her to himself as if trying to solidify the fact.

"Right I remember it was only a week ago after all. Silence for sparing time." Tenten said as if trying to clarify that she wasn't a scatter brain or anything like that.

Neji nodded his head in agreement. "Now I know you're probably preoccupied with the whole Sakura is Hinata thing going on. Which I've already explained how idiotic it is; I mean Hinata had blue hair and Sakura pink, never going to work. But putting that aside you were supposed to spare with me, and you haven't showed up for two weeks. Granted that the first couldn't be helped, but pray tell were you doing this week that you couldn't come down to the gym."

"Well, umm I don't really have an excuse I went out and hanged out with Hinata on one of the days, because you know she's pretty bored. But umm besides that I've been kind of busy working and all that." Tenten muttered sheepishly rubbing the back of her head and moving her brown eyes away from the never ending stare.

Before Neji could answer in a less than friendly way, the phone started ringing. He did however, find it amusing how Tenten seemed to jump at the chance to get out of the room and rushed over into the kitchen. When she didn't just pick up and then hang up Neji got up to fallow her into the green colored kitchen. She defiantly liked her house being a variety of colors. Not that he didn't like it or anything like that; it just reminded him a lot of Tenten herself.

"Well yeah, I get it but do you really have to do it at this time?" Neji was distracted at the sound of Tenten's voice talking to the other person on the other end of the phone. He leaned up against the wall so that he could be a comfortable eavesdropper. "Umm yes I have room for you to stay here but I…alright then I guess I'll see you in three days." Tenten stares at the phone for a little while longer before placing it back on the receiver.

"Who was that?" Neji asked curiously when Tenten turned around.

"That was my child hood friend Suigetsu he's going to be staying here for about two weeks starting in three days." Tenten looked a little distracted before she turned back to look back over at Neji "Oh and I'm sorry Neji I'll be sure to stop by at the gym tomorrow, unless you have another sparing plan you wanted."

"Yes, I did actually, three days a week I'll go with everyday. So Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, meeting at ten in the morning."

Tenten nodded her head before she was interpreted by the growling of her stomach. "Would you like to stay for breakfast?"

Neji frowned before looking up at the clock. "Its 1:30 Tenten would not that be lunch?"

"Technically." Tenten agreed before heading over to the fridge and bringing out some eggs, bread, butter, and a half gallon of milk. She then walked over to the cabinet, after setting down the actual food; she brought out a small bowl. "So do you?"

Neji watched as she took out a spatula and a butter knife from there respective drawers. Neji tilted his head to the side so that he could have a better view of Tenten bending over to bring out a frying pan from the cabinets that were lower than the dark blue counters. Neji cleared his throat when she straightened out to regard him in silent question. "Sure, it would be satisfactory to stay."

Tenten grinned at his answer before turning back to her breakfast. Not only would she have to make sure the plan was going well for her two best friends, now she had to deal with a child hood friend in a strong case of denial. And she was no extreme matchmaker, so she supposed she could get a little help in a few days time. Seeing as how tomorrow was Friday she should have enough time to get her house in order before said friend arrived, and her sparing sessions began. Her week of vacation was shaping up to be extremely busy. She just hoped her boss would understand.

But she couldn't help but to be secretly happy that Neji had come all the way to her house to talk to her, instead of calling. Perhaps there was hope yet for her secret crush. She could barley contain her excitement of seeing him for three days a week, and if she wasn't so weighed down with other peoples problems she would jump for joy. But until then…

"So what do you prefer," Tenten asked as she turned to Neji an egg in each hand as she held them up for him to view. "Scrabbled?" She asked putting her right hand higher than the other. "Or over easy?" She lifted her left hand while lowering the other. She would deal with breakfast/lunch first.

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End file.
